players Page 17 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Greater need for Angels sale as Ohtani continues to amaze
The Los Angeles Angels should be appointment television viewing. Two of their players have won half of the American League MVP awards since 2014. The most recent winner of that award — Shohei Ohtani — is playing baseball in a way in which the NFL equivalent would be Patrick Mahomes putting up T.J. W...

Aaron Judge is the king, but not for the reasons some New York dips**t thinks
It’s going to be a month of this. Aaron Judge has 50+ homers by Sept. 1, one of the very few to accomplish said feat. And with all baseball records, there are going to be self-appointed gatekeepers who have decided it is their purpose to keep the hordes at bay from sullying something sacred. There i...

How far are MLB players willing to go for their minor league counterparts?
Before I get tossed in the same bin with Buster Olney or Jeff Passan or some other water-carrying stooge for MLB owners, let me scratch and claw for escape from that right off the bat. The MLBPA reaching out to minor league players, and starting the process to welcome them into the union, is a very ...

The Los Angeles Dodgers, the greatest team of all time
The Dodgers won on Sunday. Which really isn’t news, they do that a lot. Beating the Miami Marlins isn’t really cause for celebration either, as it’s far more of a function than an accomplishment. And yet, zoom out and it is pretty startling what the Dodgers have accomplished....

Strawberry, not Mays, deserved to have his number retired by the Mets
Willie Mays was a great player....

The Julio Rodríguez deal happened quickly, but it’s absolutely worth it
As of writing this, Mariners’ outfielder and 2022 All-Star Julio Rodríguez has played in 109 career games. He’s had 463 career plate appearances and has already earned himself $210 million guaranteed, and potentially more than $450 million in total. Over how many years? We don’t really know....

It’s time we start paying more attention to Tony Gonsolin
Let’s start talking about Tony Gonsolin for the National League Cy Young Award....

The Astros scandal is the gift that keeps on giving
Every time I try to get out, the Astros’ cheating scandal of 2017 keeps pulling me back in! Whether it’s new information coming out that perhaps other teams were conducting similar schemes, new video footage detailing how José Altuve likely never participated in the team’s sign-stealing shenanigans,...

The most uncomfortable at-bat ever
I join many others in giving MLB hitters a hard time. The need to lift and drive has added an untenable amount of strikeouts to the game, and it can be frustrating watching guys simply pound contact right into a gaggle of fielders shifted over. But we also try to defend them as best we can, given th...

Will Pujols hit No. 700?
There’s no one on Earth hotter than Albert Pujols right now. In his last 10 games, Pujols is slugging 1.258. That is the second-highest mark of his career over any 10-game stretch, beaten only by his slugging percentage between August 6 and August 21 of this year: 1.259. Basically, at 42 years old. ...

Kenny Lofton accused in suit of sending dick pics
Add famed Cleveland Indians leadoff hitter and stolen base king Kenny Lofton to the list of Cleveland sports figures being accused of sexual misconduct in civil court. The retired six-time All-Star is now being sued by a former employee, who claims he was fired for bringing Lofton’s alleged lurid wo...

The Yankees could finish with a worse record than last year
October of last year may feel like an eternity ago, but take yourselves back for a moment. The Yankees were 92-70, securing a wildcard spot on the last day of the season. They lost the wildcard game to the Red Sox in a game where Gerrit Cole didn’t make it through three innings....

UFC has its moments
I feel like if I ever write about the UFC it’ll be treated like Walter Slobchak dressing down Donnie about walking into the middle of a movie. So when I walked into a friend’s house with a semi serious interest in the Kamaru Usman-Leon Edwards fight, I only knew as much as I gleaned from proofing th...

Sad Diego: Padres underperforming and underwhelming post-deadline
On paper, the San Diego Padres got better at the trade deadline. In reality, they’ve gotten worse — and are very quickly becoming the laughingstock of the MLB....

The Yankees know better than to play three- or even two-card Monty
It’s no secret. The Yankees have been awful in the month of August. Since the trade deadline Aug. 2, the once mighty Yankees have gone 3-12 (at the time of writing this), have yet to win a series, and have been outscored by 23 runs. Is it the curse of Joey Gallo? Perhaps. After all, the two-time All...

Deshaun Watson’s suspension was weak because players still refuse to stand up for women
Silence can be ear-splitting....

What could possibly go wrong going down a slide?
It’s a slide. Kids go down these things all the time. Bad things rarely ever happen, but only because they are kids, right? Surely, nothing bad would happen to big adult man David Vassegh. ...

Craig Kimbrel pitching his way off of Dodgers’ postseason roster
Craig Kimbrel needs to be left off the Dodgers’ postseason roster....

Did the Guardians win the Francisco Lindor trade?
Perhaps the biggest bane of modern baseball is most teams’ aversion to keeping the biggest stars in the game, or even having them in the first place. Only a few teams are willing to pay the best players what they’ve earned, and everyone else is looking for ways to move them along as soon as the play...

Dodgers down an arm but still possess depth
In a time when it felt like nothing could go wrong for the Dodgers, something went wrong....